"Now the player is no longer a talented kid, he is now more than that. He is a player that feels and accepts the responsibility, feels and accepts that a team player is more than a talented player.

"Without losing his fantastic ability and talent, he is giving us other things, so the kid is in a very good moment of his career.

"Let's see if the Premier League decides to give him Player of the Month, because maybe they don't like to go to Cobham [Chelsea's training ground]. The kid is waiting and the trophy is not arriving."

With the midfielder also being linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge - with Paris Saint-Germain being touted as a possible destination - Mourinho also played down any prospect of him leaving, adding: "He knows that Chelsea is a fantastic club for him."

Goalkeeper Petr Cech broke the club's clean-sheet record with another his 209th for the Blues and his manager was also quick to laud the long-serving Czech.

"He is almost 10 years playing at the top, since 2004 - clean sheet after clean sheet," Mourinho continued. "In this moment he beats the record of Mr [Peter] Bonetti and, I think, probably next year he will beat the record of the Premier League."

On the more general subject of Saturday's match, the Portuguese was pleased with his side's patient approach.

"In the first half, they controlled us very, very well," he added. "They defended well, they changed their system to adapt to us and they pressed.

"We didn't get frustrated, so we never lost the balance. Tactically, we always kept that shape. In the second half, when we had a bit more of the ball, we intensified the game."